Letterland Pictogram Concept in EFL Teaching of Young Children

Oksana Yaverbaumyaver [at] fromru.com

Teachers and parents everywhere recognize more and more the importance
of children starting to learn a foreign language early. However, the literature
on effective methods of teaching young children a foreign language is still
rather scarce. This article describes an EFL teaching program created on
the basis of Letterland pictogram concept that has been used for five years
with young Russian children.

Challenges of Foreign Language Teaching to Young Children

We know that children learn new languages very easily and that this ability
slowly disappears as a child grows. It is gone by the time an adult undertakes
learning a new language. Children who do not live in the foreign language
environment learn it at school. How to make this process for a child as
productive as the process of learning his first language? Looking into
how a child begins to learn his first language may help to see how "some
of the magic of childhood" can be used in making learning of a foreign
language more enjoyable and more productive (McGlothlin, 1997).

Choosing an FL teaching program for young children it is important to
understand that the process of language learning is divided into two parts:
the first part of this process deals with how the new language comes to
the learner, i.e. the language environment that surrounds the student;
the second part - how the learner comes to the new language, i.e. the strategies
that the student uses in his attempt to learn the language (McGlothlin,
1997). Therefore an effective FL teaching program should ideally enable
us to create an environment in class that would bring the language to children
and would enable them to start learning the foreign language as naturally
as possible.

Letterland in EFL Teaching

When I learned about Letterland concept, it inspired me in 1997 to start
my own school for EFL teaching to young children in Irkutsk, Russia. I
felt this concept could become the foundation for developing an effective
EFL teaching program, as I observed my own daughter developing a keen interest
in English by playing with Letterland resources from age two. The experience
of five years to follow has made me more confident in this feeling.

Letterland concept "of an invisible, secret place called Letterland,
located somewhere in the written word and inhabited by fictional animals
and people", created by the British educator Lyn Wendon in 70s, grew out
of her "shared moments of make-believe with children between the ages of
5 and 10 who were persistently baffled by (English) print" (Wendon, 1993).
One cannot underestimate the importance of teaching reading in EFL class.
That is always a challenge to an EFL teacher.
Letterland uses pictograms
(alphabet-shaped picture-characters) for each English sound and for sounds
represented by a combination of alphabet letters. This pictogram method
appeals for the following reasons:

The number of pictogram characters is limited (memory-friendly).

Each mnemonic story builds on previous knowledge (systematic).

The method covers the basics and far beyond (thorough).

However, Letterland is not only about teaching reading. It blends a structured
phonics approach with whole language teaching and at the same time it is
based on a child's primary interest -- play. On one level, children will
first perceive Letterland as simply fun, but beneath the surface, there
is a structured and systematic course for developing:

Listening and speaking skills

Phonic skills

Whole word recognition

Reading for meaning

Early creative writing (Wendon, 1987).

Children are introduced to the magical language about the English language,
which enables them confidently master print based on parallel learning.

The Letterland resources were developed for native-speaking children
of English, but we have seen that they adapt easily to teaching EFL in
Russia, as well as in any other non-English speaking country (Yaverbaum,
1997; www.letterland.com). A major difference is that with EFL children,
ability to decode the sounds of English words is often ahead of their ability
to understand the "meaning" of those words. Our Russian learners often
know how to pronounce a word before they know what that word means. We
continue to teach meanings by traditional methods such as translation and
picture cards and at the same time maintain communicative approach. The
pictogram characters themselves give teachers plenty of opportunities to
utilize useful English in talking with children, and conversation-based
teaching provides for extending their vocabulary and grammar.

Since 1997, we have developed and fine-tuned a complete three-year program
that is built around Letterland concept. We offer this program to children
from age four onwards. Studying for only 60 (2 lessons of 30 minutes each)
minutes per week, our students easily remember the sounds and confusing
spelling patterns of English words. Each lesson, the children experience
success in reading in foreign language. Completing a three-year course,
our pupils know about 40 different stories that enable them without a failure
to recognize and read in words most of letter combinations: e.g. ch
(children & school), sh (sheep), th (thunder & these),
oo
(book), wh (which & who), ph (photo),ow (cow &
snow), all & al (ball & always), etc.

Letterland has successfully fitted in EFL teaching because it brings
along an imaginative and friendly learning environment, which creates a
motivation to inquiry similar as in a child's natural language acquisition
process. This can be demonstrated by analysing the concept against the
ten
key factors of the child's language environment, summarised by McGlothlin
(1997):

There is NO DIRECT PRESSURE to learn (no tests, no grades, etc.).

There is NO TIME LIMIT for learning (no end of the semester).

There is NO WAY OF ESCAPING into a different language (no vacations).

The language is NOT SEQUENCED BY GRAMMAR OR VOCABULARY (no textbook).

There is LOTS OF REPETITION. His life contains repetitions and the language
around him reflects it.

Both the LANGUAGE AND THE WORLD ARE NEW (and therefore interesting).

All the language is spoken IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SURROUNDING WORLD.

THE LANGUAGE IS ALL AROUND. The child has native speakers of the language
speaking to him often.

The child has MANY OPPORTUNITIES FOR USING the language to communicate
to those around him.

Much of THE LANGUAGE IS SIMPLIFIED to the level of understanding of the
child. It is tailor-made for the child.

Factors 1, 2, and 3 relate a child's motivation to continue learning.
Tests and the pressure of time help to keep a student at learning task,
and when these motivating factors are removed, progress often stops. But
a child, who does not have these pressures when learning his first language,
has no way of escaping from the new language. These factors, in relation
to EFL leaning, we challenge by starting teaching very young children (from
4), i.e. well before they start attending formal school, therefore -- no
pressure of test and grades. Children perceive studying as playing; it
makes them want to continue. Although time limit exists in terms of lesson
duration, children are willing to talk about Letterland even at home. Although
they tell stories about 'Letterlanders' in Russian adding to them new learned
foreign words, this serves as a bridge from their native language environment
to EFL environment.

Factors 4, 5, and 6 deal with the order of learning. In an EFL
class, the textbook or the teacher decides the sequence of the material,
whereas a child does not have a textbook to provide this sequence for learning
his first language. "Instead, his environment provides two ways that his
language learning can be naturally ordered. The first comes from the natural
repetition in his life, and the second comes from the natural order of
his interest in the world "(McGlothlin, 1997). With Letterland, the sequence
of teaching material is presented to children as a journey together with
a teacher through the imaginary land where English letters come alive.
Grammar teaching is also built around the stories of Letterland characters.
Grammar constructions are introduced indirectly during conversations about
Letterland and then reinforced by repetition. Children learn to listen
and understand, then ask and answer questions by talking about or acting
as 'Letterlanders':

Q. Who are you? Who is this letter?A. I am Clever Cat./She is Clever Cat/Q. Where do(es) she (he, you) live?A. She lives in Letterland./ I live in Russia.Q. What do(es) she (he,you) like?A. She likes Coca-cola. /I like Coca-cola.

As the creator of Letterland has discovered, 'Letterlanders' provide
us with new opportunities to get rid of boring exercises in segmentation
in favor of question and answer games, which work on segmentation playfully
(Wendon, 1993):

Q. What would Fireman Fred prefer for lunch,
lettuce leaves or fresh fish?A. (Pause while they think.) Fresh fish.Q. Who would want the lettuce leaves?A. Lucy, the Lamp Lady.Q. What is your favourite food?A. Spaghetti?Q. Who in Letterland would love ssspaghetti too?

The whole concept is largely built on repetition: alliterative names of
characters (Clever Cat, Quarrelsome Queen, etc.), vocabulary around
each character; texts in readers built on repetition of words; each mnemonic
story builds on previous knowledge. For our learners, picture-characters
of Letterland have become the "sounds of English" in disguise. This makes
children become curious to learn more week by week.

Factor 7 emphasizes that the language is spoken in the context
of the world around a child. Thus, the new language is not a secret code
to be translated into another language to reveal its meaning. Rather, the
language is related directly to his world. When teaching EFL, this "secret
code" is an issue. With Letterland approach, all EFL in class is spoken
in the context of the Letterland world. The language and the world of Letterland
are new and therefore unfailingly interesting to children.

Factors 8, 9 are a challenge for an EFL teacher and a learner
if they do not live in the English-speaking culture. Using Letterland resources
developed by and for native English speakers definitely brings more advantage
than using resources created, for instance, in Russia.

Factor 10 states that much of the language a child hears is simplified.
When a person speaks to a young child, he does his best to get across his
meaning in language that the child can understand. Letterland introduces
a story-like instruction language where phonic facts are presented in a
form of analogies, which children readily understand. The stories 'lift'
your instruction, making it immediate for the children. Thus, digraphs
are made logical: e.g. sh: "When you see Sammy Snake next to the Hairy
Hat Man he hushes Sammy Snake up like this,'sh!', because the Hairy Hat
Man hates noise".

As it was mentioned above, there is more to a child's language learning
process than his language environment. Let's now look at the ten
key language-learning strategies that a child uses to help him to learn
his first language and see how Letterland concept fits in EFL learning:

A Child's Learning Strategies (McGlothlin, 1997)

EFL teaching with Letterland at 'Center A-Ya', Irkutsk

1.

A child is NOT INTERESTED IN LANGUAGE for its own sake.

A child is not interested in EFL as it s not spoken in the culture he lives in, but Letterland stimulates his interest in the magic world

2.

The language he does not understand does NOT DISTURB a child.

A child easily understands story-like instruction language, i.e. the language he does not understand does not disturb him.

3.

A child ENJOYS THE REPETITIVE events of his life, and uses this enjoyment to help him learn.

Children enjoy 'meeting' 'Letterlanders' repetitively; each mnemonic story builds on previous knowledge

4.

A child USES HIS PRIMARY INTERESTS to help him learn.

Play is a child's primary interest. It is stimulated by traveling through the imaginary land(acting the characters, dressing up, etc)

5.

A child directs his attention to things that are EASY TO UNDERSTAND.

Story logic is easier to understand than formal instruction language

6.

The child possesses a natural desire TO CALL AN OBJECT BY ITS NAME.

Letters are characters, i.e. objects, with names, consisting of meaningful English words. These objects are new and unusual to children, therefore interesting. (Also, main focus during the first year placed on learning nouns.)

7.

A child uses his natural desire TO PARTICIPATE IN THE LIFE AROUND HIM to help him learn new language.

Introducing a child to the magical environment reinforces his natural desire to play, children like talking about the Letterland characters and sounds.

8.

A child adds words to his speaking vocabulary more easily IF HE ALREADY KNOWS HOW TO PRONOUNCE THEM.

A child learns to 'sound' unknown words eventually without teacher's help, i.e. he knows how to pronounce them before he is shown

9.

A child IMMEDIATELY USES the language, and his SUCCESS IN COMMUNICATION BUILDS CONFIDENCE.

A child immediately experiences success in understanding written communication that builds confidence for further EFL learning

All of these learning strategies are important, but the one related
to building learner's confidence, is worth to be considered one of the
most important: "A learner without confidence is in trouble from the very
beginning, but one who possesses the confidence that comes from success,
even when the success is limited, can overcome a host of other learning
problems (McGlothlin, 1997). With Letterland approach, each lesson the
children experience success in making sense of the unknown, and this builds
a solid foundation to the success in further EFL learning.

Conclusion

The Letterland concept helps to create an EFL learning environment that
is similar to a child's natural language learning environment. We have
also observed that Letterland methods are very much in line with a child's
natural language learning strategies. This makes us, at Centre A-Ya, to
believe that this is a reason why the method has been so successful and
why it should be recommended for EFL teaching of young children.

Our teachers are excited, enthusiastic and enjoy the program. We discovered
that they found the concept enormously helpful personally. Many of them
have commented that now they too understand better why certain letters
behave in certain ways and, therefore, are in a much better position to
teach EFL to their classes. What is also very rewarding for the staff is
that the children's curiosity is making teaching so much easier and so
much more satisfying.